Interfacing LED and push button switch to 8051

This article is all about how to interface push button switches to an 8051 microcontroller. Push button switches are widely used in embedded system projects and the knowledge about interfacing them to 8051 is very essential in designing such projects. A typical push button switch has two active terminals that are normally open and these two terminals get internally shorted when the push button is depressed. Images of a typical pushbutton switch is shown below.

Pushbutton switch

Circuit diagram.

Interfacng 8051 and pushbutton

The circuit diagram for interfacing push button switch to 8051 is shown above. AT89S51 is the microcontroller used here. The circuit is so designed that when push button S1 is depressed the LED D1 goes ON and remains ON until push button switch S2 is depressed and this cycle can be repeated. Resistor R3, capacitor C3 and push button S3 forms the reset circuitry for the microcontroller. Capacitor C1, C2 and crystal X1 belongs to the clock circuitry. R1 and R2 are pull up resistors for the push buttons. R4 is the current limiting resistor for LED.

Program.

MOV P0,#83H // Initializing push button switches and initializing LED in OFF state.
READSW: MOV A,P0 // Moving the port value to Accumulator.
RRC A // Checking the vale of Port 0 to know if switch 1 is ON or not
JC NXT // If switch 1 is OFF then jump to NXT to check if switch 2 is ON
CLR P0.7 // Turn ON LED because Switch 1 is ON
SJMP READSW // Read switch status again.
NXT: RRC A // Checking the value of Port 0 to know if switch 2 is ON or not
JC READSW // Jumping to READSW to check status of switch 1 again (provided switch 2 is OFF)
SETB P0.7 // Turning OFF LED because Switch 2 is ON
SJMP READSW // Jumping to READSW to read status of switch 1 again.
END

The Logic

The first instruction – MOV P0 #83H – is to turn LED off (Hex 83 in binary = 10000011) and to initialize switches 1 and 2. Switch 1 is connected to port 0.0 and switch 2 is connected to port 0.1. Also note that LED is connected to port 0.7.

The program has two labels – READSW and NXT. It’s all about reading switch values – that is P0.0 and P0.1. We are using RRC instruction to read switch values. The values of port 0 is moved to accumulator. Since port 0 and 1 are used to interface switches 1 and 2, we can get the values of both port bits in LSB”s 0 and 1 of accumulator by using MOV A,P0 instruction. RRC – means – rotate right through carry. You can learn more about this instruction here – 8051 programming tutorial 1 . What RRC do is simple – it will move value of port 0.0 to the carry bit. Now we can check the carry bit using instruction JC – which means “jump if carry is set” . If carry is SET – then it means port0.0 =1 and this means switch 1 is OFF. If switch 1 is OFF then we have to check status of switch 2 and that is why we jump to label NXT.

In the mean time if switch 1 is pressed – then value of port 0.0 will be equal to zero. This will get moved to accumulator and hence an RRC will result in carry bit = o. If carry bit = 0 then result of executing JC instruction is negative and it will not jump. The next instruction will get executed – that is CLR P0.7. This clears port 0.7 to zero and hence LED will turn ON. Once turned On- LED will be kept On until switch 2 is pressed.

The status of switch 2 is checked in NXT label. When NXT is executed, we are using RRC for the second time consecutively. This means, the carry bit now holds the value of P0.1 – which is status of switch 2. If carry bit = 1 then switch 2 is OFF. This means LED should not be turned OFF. If carry bit = 0 then LED should be turned OFF (The instruction SETB P0.7 turns LED OFF)

Toggling 2 LED with a pushbutton using interrupt.

This circuit demonstrates how to toggle two LEDs with a single push button using the external interrupts. Interrupt is an asynchronous signal (either hardware or software) which indicates the processor to make a change in current execution. When the processor receives a valid interrupt signal it saves the current state and then goes to execute a set of predefined steps called interrupt service routine (ISR). After executing ISR, the processor goes back to the point where it deviated and continues from there. To learn more about interrupts check this link. External interrupt handling in 8051.

Circuit diagram.

Toggling LED using 8051 with interrupt

In the circuit shown above D1, D2 (the LEDs to be toggled) are connected to P1.0 and P1.1 respectively. R2 and R4 limits the current through the LEDs. The push button switch S2 is connected to the INT0 pin where R1 is a pull up resistor and C4 is the debouncing capacitor. C3, R3 and S3 forms the reset circuitry. Capacitors C2, C2 and crystal X1 are related to the clock circuitry. When powered ON LED D1 will be OFF and and LED D2 will be ON. Whenever push button switch S2 is pressed it creates an interrupt and the software makes the status of P1.o and P1.1 to toggle which gets reflected in the LEDs.

I have designed cross road traffic signal control system with that i am showing if a vehicle passes by night sensor would sense and road light would be turned on.
The prob I am facing is once the prog goes into ISR the main prog i.e. traffic lights gets stuck.
Please advice I want the traffic lights should continue just the road lights should be turned on for a specific time.

in thetoggling LED,s circuit the LED,s should be connected with ports 1.6 and 1.7 then thay will toggle with interrupt. at 1.0and 1.1 every time the samepattern is applied so they will not lit alternately.
if i am right please inform if not then too…..

in ur interrupt program when we push the button,the int0 becomes low and executes the isr but i had a doubt dat whether the int0 pin again becomes high after the reti instruction after releasing the push button…or we have to again make it enable(high state)
please cmmnt in urgent need of help..

hi,
thanks for the fast response.
I appreciate this is here for learning. you have some nice articles. but in order to achieve ‘LED ON OR OFF’ all you need is a latching spdt and the LED.
This does not explain the need for all this circuitry.. and i would like to see an example of where this might be useful to me in the future.

also it seems to me c3 and r3 create a ‘de-bounce’and are not just “part of” the reset circuitry. this is worth noting as is also useful in other circuits.